Modern Mining September 2022

covering an extensive strike length of 85 km, the project offers great resource upside and project longevity. To date, CCR has only drilled 4,5 km of the strike where the 400 000 ton contained copper resource is stated. “We have been investigating options to develop along strike to limit the expensive drilling required, and have undertaken an induced polarisation (IP) pilot campaign which involves charging electric ity into the ground to measure its conductivity and electrical resistivity. Combined with other exploration techniques like radio-metrics and electromagnetics, these tools allow us to establish a 3D geological pic ture of the orebody.” According to Van Wouw, the search is to pin-point the area where the Mbamba Kilenda fault line inter sects the transition from sandstone to dolomites, which is where the mineralisation occurs. “Using the induced polarisation technique, we are exploring 2.5 km to the east and 2.5 km west of the current resource. Using IP we are able to more accurately determine the triple junction hosting the orebody at depth,” he explains. By specifically targeting the use of IP in this way across the area it intends to develop, CCR will signifi cantly lower its exploration drilling costs. If the company is able to prove its theory that the orebody extends to the east and the west of the project and contains high copper grades simi lar to the evaluated 4,5 km strike, there is potential for the resource to be upgraded to a 1,5 mt to 2 mt contained copper in resource, firmly positioning the company in the big league. Coupled with upgrading the Mbamba Kilenda resource, CCR is advancing the technical aspects of its flagship project and recently turned to X-ray flo rescence (XRF) scanning – an analytical tool used to assay for metal contained. “Companies are using XRF scanning technology in a sorting device. Using this technology, we have undertaken metallurgical test work to determine its suitability to the Mbamba Kilenda orebody and found that it works very well indeed. The original design can now be cost-effectively modified to recover copper in concentrate – this is a massive game-changer as it offers us a huge saving on both capital and operat ing costs. We are in the process of incorporating this technology into the work that is being managed by engineering specialist Lycopodium, which will allow us to speedily take the project through to the next phase.” Lunga project update Located in the highly prospective copper region of the Lunga basin, some 230 km from Lusaka, the Lunga project lies in close proximity to the Chifumpa mine, which produces high copper grade ores. The project comprises a single large-scale exploration licence covering 292 km².

Given that the campaign of geochemical sam pling and geological mapping undertaken last year revealed significantly more anomalous occurrences than initially identified, CCR’s next phase of explora tion will focus on advanced geophysical techniques prior to drilling. “The Lunga project has anomalous 500 ppm copper with coincident lead and zinc and, when compared to the average Zambian background reading of 20 ppm, this project is highly prospec tive,” says Van Wouw. CCR hopes to achieve similar copper grades as its neighbour, the Chimfampa mine which contains >4% copper in oxides from its run of mine material. “By Zambian standards, 4% copper is regarded as a high-grade deposit and having sampled out croppings on the Lunga tenement, which delivered similar mineralisation to the Chimfampa mine, we remain extremely encouraged.” Titan Kayeye project CCR’s wholly-owned Titan project is located 50 km southwest of Kolwezi in the DRC, adjacent to

CCR team busy logging core samples.

CCR is working on expanding the resource to gain a clearer view of the size potential of the orebody extensions.

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